ToaruOS

ToaruOS
DeveloperK. Lange
Written inC
OS familyUnix-like
Working stateCurrent
Source modelOpen source
Initial releaseJanuary 30, 2017; 7 years ago (2017-01-30)
Latest release2.2.0
Repository
Platformsx86-64 aarch64
Kernel typeHybrid
LicenseUIUC License
Official websitewww.toaruos.org

ToaruOS (also known as ToAruOS or とあるOS; 'toaru' is Japanese roughly equivalent to 'a certain') is a hobby operating system[1] and kernel developed largely independently (notably contrary to most modern OSes, which are based on existing source code) by K. Lange. Despite a 1.0 version being released, Lange has stated that it is still 'incomplete', and may not be 'suitable for any purpose you might have for an operating system'.[2][3] It is released under the permissive UIUC License,[4] and supports 64-bit computer hardware with SMP.

Design and features

ToaruOS is programmed in C,[5] and uses the Cairo graphics library.[6] It has support for GCC, Python, and Simple DirectMedia Layer as well as many open-source utilities – including Vim.[7] A package manager and basic window switcher[6] are also included.

The kernel is a 'basic Unix-like environment'. It has a hybrid architecture, with internal and external device support being delegated to modules. Several filesystems are supported via this system, including ext2 and ISO 9660.[8] Networking support is included, but is limited to simple IPv4 functionality.[3] The userspace also has a window manager, Yutani (named after the Weyland-Yutani Corporation from the Alien franchise, and as a reference to the Wayland Display Server for Linux), with input support.[6] It stores windows as shared memory regions with 32-bit colour, and uses pipes to communicate to other parts of the OS. Unusually, windows also support a rotation feature.

History

Development was started by creator K. Lange in December 2010;[1] it initially was supported by the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, but after the beginning of 2012, it largely shifted to being mostly done by Lange.[9] Initially, it was based on tutorials for x86 kernels.[10] The operating system was named after the A Certain Scientific Railgun series of manga, but Lange stated it also mirrors generic naming of other hobby OSes. A GUI was added with a window manager in 2012,[6] this was replaced with a more advanced version in 2014.

The initial official release, version 1.0, was released at the end of January 2017.[7] This marked the first stable release, but Lange stated it was still 'a work in development with so much work left to be done'.[2] This was superseded by versions 1.0.1 and 1.0.2, which added audio improvements and fixed bugs.[7]

For April Fools' Day 2015, Lange released PonyOS, a version of ToaruOS themed after the animated series My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.[citation needed]

See also

  • TempleOS – another operating system developed largely from scratch
  • Redox OS – another Unix-like independently developed OS

References

  1. ^ a b Lange, K. (December 22, 2016). "About- とあるOS". Retrieved June 15, 2017.
  2. ^ a b Venma, Adarsh (February 13, 2017). "ToaruOS 1.0 Open Source OS Released After 6+ Years Of Development". FossBytes. Retrieved June 12, 2017.
  3. ^ a b Holwerda, Thom (February 16, 2017). "ToaruOS 1.0.3 Released". OSNews. Retrieved June 12, 2017.
  4. ^ License on github.com
  5. ^ "The ToAruOS Open Source Project on Open Hub". Retrieved June 12, 2017.
  6. ^ a b c d Lange, K. (May 10, 2014). "Yutani: The new compositor - とあるOS". Retrieved June 15, 2017.
  7. ^ a b c Larabel, Michael (February 12, 2017). "ToaruOS 1.0 Released, Hobby OS/Kernel Written From Scratch Over 6+ Years". Phoronix. Retrieved June 12, 2017.
  8. ^ "Features". GitHub. February 17, 2017. Retrieved June 15, 2017.
  9. ^ "klange/toaruos". GitHub. February 9, 2017. Retrieved June 15, 2017.
  10. ^ "FAQs". GitHub. February 17, 2017. Retrieved June 15, 2017.